Collating and binding systems are well known in the printing industry for mass producing printed products, such as booklets, magazines, catalogues, advertising brochures and the like. Typically, one or more sharply folded and generally pre-printed blanks or signatures are sequentially fed by a number of spaced signature feeders. The signatures are delivered such that the signatures come to rest upon a collating conveyor line which travels past the signature feeders. The conveyor gathers the signatures, one on top of the other, into a book block and moves the book block to a binding station where a cover is applied.
Recently, it has become desirable to secure items to a printed product. As used herein, the term item refers to any object that is attached to a printed product by means other than by binding, and that is smaller (e.g., in surface area) than the printed product to which it is attached. For example, it may be desirable to secure a credit card, envelope, sample packet, signature or other items to a printed product. In order to accomplish this, it is known to glue the items directly to the individual signatures, one at a time, and then provide the signatures in a shingled stream to a downstream operation (e.g., a gatherer). For example, a device known as "The Attacher", sold by Ga-Vehren Engineering, can perform this function.
It can be appreciated that the transport of signatures from the attaching device to the subsequent operation can be difficult in view of the fact that the signatures have protruding items attached to them. This can result in problems associated with smooth transport of the signatures, particularly in a shingled stream. The problem is particularly evident in the case of magazine covers, which are typically fed individually from a stack by a cover feeder. Items secured to the covers tend to interfere with feeding the covers from the stack.
The printing industry has also recognized the need for flexibility in producing different versions of the same book to be mailed to users in the same geographical location, and the value of printing personalized messages (e.g. directed to a specific consumer or group of consumers) on each book. Ink jet printing is commonly used for producing such personalized messages on these types of books.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,116 discloses an apparatus that can print on the full page of signatures. The disclosed printing apparatus removes signatures from a stack and separates the signatures for printing. The signatures are subsequently fed to a collating conveyor where the signatures are gathered to form a book block.